Ulju Trail 9 Peaks: Kim Jisub shows his class again

While every finisher of the very tough 125 km long Ulju Trail 9 Peaks deserves an honourary mentioning, the winner of the 45 km and 2500 hm medium distance was nevertheless again the most eye-catching trail athlete of the weekend. Two weeks after storming to victory in Seoul, Kim Jisub smashed the opposition again in the Yeongnam Alps on Friday. Kim Jisub won in 5h19, half an hour ahead of Minchul Ko, and 45 minutes ahead of Jong Youl Kim. With two ATM race wins and 1000 points this season, Kim Jisub is already guaranteed of a spot in Team Korea for the ATM Championship Final race on Mount Apo in December. He would be one of the top favourites, even when - as with Jeff Campbell, for instance - 75km is a slightly longer distance than he is used to compete on. Also qualified for his country team already is Jaeduk Sim, who finished fourth in Ulju after a 3rd place in Seoul 100K two weeks ago.

The fastest three women on the 45km were Hyunja Kim, Narae Park and Eun Nam Kim.

The longest race distance lived up to its reputation as being one of the toughest mountain trails in the ATM series and Asia in general. The DNF rate was high, but nevertheless there were 52 finishers. The weather conditions were ideal to highlight the magnificent autumn colours of the mountain regions not too far from Busan in the southeastern corner of South Korea. Junghyun Lim was the strongest by one hour over Dong Kuk Jang in 23 hours 10 minutes . Youngmin Yoon completed the podium in fourth and was followed by India’s ATM Grandmaster Shashwat Rao - a pure mountain trail lover. Rao did have some bad luck along the way, as he missed a marker and therefore a potential podium finish. Gyesook Lee was first woman in the finish in a time of 28 hours 41 minutes. Ji Ho Hwang was second and Sun Yeon Lee third.